SciHub and LibGen seems like very different things. They're both extremely useful. However, surely the ethical situation is very different? For SciHub I see lit

SciHub and LibGen seems like very different things. They're both extremely useful. However, surely the ethical situation is very different? For SciHub I see little ethical problem: the authors of scientific papers never expect royalties and will almost universally welcome free access to their publications. No-one's going to shed tears on behalf of scientific publishing companies; they had their time, in the era of type-writers, but nowadays we can create our own PDFs, thanks very much. LibGen on the other hand I'm fascinated by. Most people I meet have absolutely no idea that a vast proportion of all commercially-produced (more or less technical) books are available for convenient free download. And while I would love for that human knowledge to be freely available to everyone on the planet, we do have to concede that many of those books were written by authors on the understanding that it was a commercial project and they would receive income for it. Do people generally agree with the above distinction? I feel that this thread (and perhaps the French government / courts) should be making it more clearly.